


Fireworks and Fisticuffs

by KazOfScotland



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M, Ron Weasley Bashing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:22:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25179922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KazOfScotland/pseuds/KazOfScotland
Summary: It's Ron and Hermione's engagement party, and Bill has brought along his boyfriend, what can go wrong at a Weasley Celebration?
Relationships: Cormac McLaggen/Bill Weasley, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley
Comments: 5
Kudos: 19
Collections: Wild Weasley Celebration





	Fireworks and Fisticuffs

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheUltimateUndesirable](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheUltimateUndesirable/gifts).



> Thank you to TheUltimateUndesirable for the idea, and the ship, and for beta reading this. 
> 
> This is written as part of the Wild Weasley Celebration One-shot fest

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/188770186@N05/50096826152/in/dateposted-public/)

This was not how today was supposed to happen. Today was meant to be a celebration, a party, something fun. It was not supposed to go like this. Now a Weasley celebration, that was something that could always go one of two ways. It would either go completely to plan and have everyone enjoying themselves, but it would be calm and kept under control. Or it would be completely and utterly wild with fireworks going off literally and figuratively. Now Bill was the eldest of the Weasley siblings and for that fact he should have known better. 

But he didn’t. 

Bill didn’t normally bring anyone home for family celebrations. Especially after his relationship with Fleur combusted because she couldn’t handle the fact that he was bisexual and had had relationships with men in the past. His family had been supportive, but slightly protective ever since the combustion of his marriage so he didn’t want to have his family around any of his relationships again. But it was Ron and Hermione’s engagement party, and his mum had essentially given him the ultimatum that he found a date for the party or else she would find him one. 

So he had no choice but to bring a date and whilst he could have asked a friend to accompany him instead of causing a great deal of tension and annoyance between his youngest brother and his date. That would be too easy though. His date, who was essentially his boyfriend now, had matured a lot since the end of his time at Hogwarts. But Ron, he could hold a grudge, especially if it involved Hermione. However, despite how much he loved his brother, he was not going to pretend that he was interested in someone who he wasn’t. He knew what his family was like, if he turned up with someone at the party they would question him for the foreseeable future on the relationship. 

So today was their engagement party and Bill was bringing his date who was the one person outside of Draco Malfoy that Ron hated from his time at Hogwarts. Cormac McLaggen was the man who he had been dating for months but he had never actually told his family. He had just mentioned that he was seeing someone, there was no commitment on the details. But now he was standing at the door to the Burrow, with Cormac to his left, and the sight of his siblings all milling around inside. 

He knew it was going to be tense between Ron, because seriously he couldn’t get over his grudge, and Cormac, because whilst his boyfriend had matured he still wouldn’t back down when he was pushed. However, he didn’t regret his decision, but he would later on. 

The party was in full swing. Food was constantly on the buffet table and there was alcohol flowing, that was the upside to them all being legally of age. It didn’t mean that everyone was enjoying the alcohol. Bill, himself, refused to touch the stuff with a full moon coming up in just under a week. He always hated it, he was fortunate enough that he hadn’t been affected by the werewolf enough that he would turn. Still he always felt tired and off balance just before a full moon. 

Cormac had managed to keep his head down and, in fact, had spent most of the night discussing Quidditch with Charlie and his boyfriend, Oliver. But Ron, the absolute idiot, had been slowly increasing his consumption of Fire Whisky and had become more and more annoyed by Cormac’s presence. As far as he was concerned, it was his celebration, and his brother should have respected that enough not to have brought the former Gryffindor Keeper. The one that had taken Hermione, who was now his fiance, to the Slug Club party when they were in their sixth year at Hogwarts. It didn’t matter that he was the one engaged to the genius witch. 

Bill was happy enough to just sit with his brother and their significant others. But of course, his brother was still a teenager who had failed to mature. Despite everything that had happened with the war and the fact that he had spent what was meant to be his last year at Hogwarts searching for horcruxes with Harry and Hermione, he was the only one not to grow in maturity. 

Ron had spent the whole day glaring at Cormac and making snide comments. His brother seemed to be under the impression that because he hadn’t matured, neither could anyone else. If he took the time and just looked at those around him he would have seen that everyone had grown up since their time at Hogwarts, and perhaps he would have done the same. However, Bill could see that each comment was digging at Cormac. Not that he blamed the younger man. Cormac knew what his regrets of the past were, and he had dealt with most of those, but his habit of pursuing people who were already happy when he was in high school was a major regret. He knew it had been out of embarrassment due to being gay. 

Whilst Cormac had not made the best decisions, Bill could understand what his action had been fuelled by. Internalised homophobia wasn’t something anyone should be made to suffer through. Hating oneself was a horrible way to feel, and sometimes you had to put on an act to deal with it. However, it was difficult to explain that to someone who had the emotional range of a spoon, which meant that it was difficult to explain it to Ron. 

By the time that Ron was old enough to understand, both Bill and Charlie had been comfortable with their sexualities, so he had never had to witness it. Sometimes Bill wished that he could explain everything emotional to his youngest brother, make it a little easier for him to understand and respect people. But, alas, that was never going to be something that could happen. 

Cormac watched as Hermione danced with Ron. He could still feel the stirrings of regret as everyone danced and enjoyed the party around him. He knew his actions at the last party he was at with Hermione were wrong and unforgivable. He never should have pressured her to make out with him as much as he did, but he also knew why he did so. It had all been an act. An act to pretend that he was like everyone else. However he had grown since then, and that meant that he was well aware of the fact that he owed the witch an apology. She had been full of grace and beauty, and he had been a pig in an attempt to bury down everything that he hated, all he had wanted was to be like everyone else. 

But for now, he was going to enjoy having the opportunity to dance with Bill. He had been wanting to since the first time that he saw the man, that first day when he started his apprenticeship as a cursebreaker. The man was rough but polite, fast but graceful. The man was the most contradictory person he had ever met, but that was part of what attracted him to the eldest Weasley. The man was always himself and for some reason that felt as though it gave Cormac permission to be himself as well. 

Just three years ago he had been flirting outrageously with any female that would be deemed attractive. Just three years ago, he would never have considered dancing with a man in public. But now he was and he was ready to start anew, ready to be himself, and do his best to move on as the best person he could be. 

“What are you thinking about?” Bill’s voice was soft but yet rumbling as they slowly danced around the floor. They kept to the edges but neither man felt as though they were hiding, in fact it felt as though it was just them and the world had disappeared. It was just them under the moonlight. 

“That I want to fix some mistakes before the bells ring,” Cormac’s voice had gotten lower and softer in the recent years since he had left Hogwarts. It was something that always sent chills down Bill’s spine, especially when the younger man would whisper in his ear. 

But then their romantic moment ended, it was sudden and unexpected. One minute they had been swaying in the corner as the music slowed again, and the next, Cormac was stumbling towards the ground. Unfortunately pulling the eldest Weasley towards the ground with him. 

“WHAT IN THE NAME OF MERLIN IS GOING ON?” And that was Mrs Weasley, who was probably the most terrifying woman on earth, with the exception of Professor McGonagall. However, if anything was going to happen at a Weasley Celebration, then Molly Weasley, one of the most formidable women ever, would be the one to end it. No one would ever dare ignore or lie to her. 

Bill didn’t even attempt to answer, he had no idea what was going on, nor had he been paying enough attention to even guess. Instead, he just tried to pull himself up to his feet, before he held out his hand to Cormac who was flat on his back on the grass that surrounded the dance floor. He hated that party hadn’t gone as it should have, but he knew it was only going to get worse when Cormac pushed himself to his feet with a look of anger etched deep in his face. 

Bill followed him to his feet, but it was too late, he knew that he could do nothing to prevent what was going to happen next from happening. He knew that Cormac was going to swing back at whoever had put them on the ground, but he knew that it would only be one punch. One punch and that would be it. This had happened once before, and only once, so Bill knew what to expect, but that didn’t mean that this was something he was pleased about. 

“Why are you even here?” It was Ron. He was repeating it over and over again. His words were slurring and Cormac despite the fact that he was annoyed had to respect that Harry, Ron’s best friend and probably the only reason that no one had knocked Ron around silly, was trying to pull him away. But the youngest of the Weasley brothers was not the brightest egg in the box and kept fighting his way forward. He was itching to hit out at the slightly older former Gryffindor. “You shouldn’t be here. You already had your chance.” 

Before Cormac, or Bill or anyone else could respond, Hermione came to their defence. Really Cormac had to both apologise to, and thank the witch later, because he did not deserve that after his previous actions. “He doesn’t want me, you moron, he is here with Bill. Even you with the emotional range of a goddamn teaspoon should be able to see that he and Bill are made for each other,” she wasn’t shouting, but the party was so silent that she may as well have been. Everyone heard every word that was said. Especially the next ones. The ones that made this a true Weasley Celebration with everything that could go wrong, going wrong. 

“I can’t do this, Ron. I can’t have you acting like this because you think that someone is looking at me. For Merlin’s sake you just punched your brother’s boyfriend because we went to a party together at Hogwarts, you accused me of fancying Neville and Luna because I had spent quite a few days with them. Well guess what, Cormac and I would never have worked. And Neville and Luna, they are my friends and they needed me. I can’t do this with you, Ron!” She was ranting but the message was clear, and almost instantly, the crowd who had come to celebrate the engagement knew that there would be no wedding. 

With whispered apologies to Molly, Hermione bolted from the party. She was gone, and Ron did nothing to follow. He was too caught up in his own anger and false beliefs to even be concerned about where his fiance, well now ex-fiance, was rushing off to. By this point Bill had had his hand on Cormac’s arm, and he could feel the arm tensing underneath his grip. Normally he would have tried to stop the inevitable punch that his boyfriend was going to throw. But he liked Hermione and Ron deserved it. 

Just as the crowd was clearing out there was the smack of a fist making contact with someone's jaw, and then Ron was lying flat out on the floor. The soon to be fully fledged curse breaker was standing over him nursing his hand. 

“There was never anything between me and Hermione. She loved you, but you pushed her away.” 

And after that, Bill knew that bringing his boyfriend to Weasley Celebrations would be at the risk of a very long lecture from his mum about what was appropriate and what wasn’t. 

“That was brilliant,” Bill knew that he shouldn’t condone someone, let alone the man that he shared a bed with, punching his brother. Sometimes though his brother was a big enough idiot to deserve it, and this was definitely one of those times. “But maybe, we should celebrate this in a different way.”


End file.
